Creative Writings

“Truth is a clumsy scullery maid who breaks the dishes as she washes them up” - Pascal

Walter Scott, the great English writer and poet wrote, 'One hour of crowded glory is worth an age without a name'. The standing informal motto of every Union Cabinet Minister in the UPA non-Government today, with the full tacit political approval of the de jure Prime Minister and the moral approval of the de facto Prime Minister, is this: 'A moment of crowded infamy is better than an age with a great name for political decency and honesty'.

Such a moment of crowded infamy for Shibu Soren, the Union Cabinet Minister for Coal was reached on Monday when he was declared guilty by Additional Sessions Judge, P R Kedia in Delhi in a murder case in which Shibu Soren's Special Secretary Sashi Nath Jha was criminally abducted on 28 November, 1994 and later murdered in a brutal manner by Shibu Soren, Nand Kishore Mehta, Shailendra Bhattacharya, Pashupathinath Mehta and Ajay Kumar Mehta. All the five of them have been declared as guilty of murder under IPC Section 120B (Criminal Conspiracy for Murder), Section 364 (Kidnapping), and Section 302 (Murder).

It's a moment of unprecedented disgrace not only for Shibu Soren but also for Dr. Manmohan Singh, the ever-weak and ever-meek Prime Minister, and Sonia Gandhi, the unchallenged and imperious Chairperson (The Supremo!) of the UPA Co-ordination Committee, H R Bharadwaj, the ever-obliging Union Minister for Law on paper and Lawlessness in practice! – in short, indeed for the disgraceful and shameless UPA Government in New Delhi as a whole. Never before in the history of India – indeed mankind – have so many illegal and unscrupulous men with known and established track records of crime been given so many highest positions of Ministerial responsibility as in the UPA Government.

Having done with the melodiously heroic saga of Shibu Soren, let me now move on to another melodious piece in the UPA ensemble. The UPA Government under the supreme benediction of Sonia Gandhi has always shown cavalier contempt for the cardinal principles of Majesty of Law, Equality before the Law and the Rule of Law. I am not making this observation without any foundation in fact or law. The Supreme Court on Monday blasted the Centre's move to dispose of the Taj Heritage Corridor case against Mayawati. This is not the first time that the Court has reprimanded the Government in the case. Soon after the corrupt and irresponsible UPA Government came to power in New Delhi, Supreme Court quashed CBI's 2004 status report that recommended closure of the case. The Supreme Court has now asked CBI to file evidence and documents collected during the probe - along with the report of the Superintendent of Police as required under Section 173 (2) of CrPC (Charge Sheet) before the Court or Special Judge who will decide the matter. In a stinging judgement, the Supreme Court has not only cast aside Attorney General Milton Banerjee's opinion given in December 2004 to CBI to shut the case, but also castigated the CBI's former Director US Mishra who obliged the UPA Government in a suavely servile manner by referring the matter with alacrity to the 'duly instructed' Milton Banerjee for his learned opinion even before forming his own assessment as CBI Director in the light of clinching evidence placed before him by his own CBI investigating team. T

o quote the biting words of the Supreme Court in this context: 'There was no difference of opinion among concerned officers, and therefore, there was no question of reference to the Attorney General (AG). We reject the status report dated December 31, 2004 as it is a charade of the performance of duty by CBI.' The Supreme Court asked the investigating agency not to file Milton Banerjee's opinion as AG before the Trial Court. What is worth noting is that AG had suggested closure of the case against Mayawati at a time when Congress, the dominant partner in the UPA coalition, began cosying up to Mayawati's BSP almost a year ago. The Supreme Court had also sought the opinion of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) which also gave the opinion that it was a fit case for prosecution of Mayawati, her then Cabinet colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqui, and former State Environment Secretary R K Sharma.

It is very clear that the Supreme Court clearly saw through Milton Banerjee's loaded opinion which was politically orchestrated along with the then CBI Director playing the supporting role. Just as Shakuni's character is always associated with the game of dice in the Mahabharata epic, even so the name of Milton Banerjee will ever be associated with the game of political dice played by the Congress Party and the UPA Government after May 2004 in the Mayavati case.

In this context, I am only reminded of that famous Bishop Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) who obliged Henry VIII (1491-1547) with a flexible and favorable ecclesiastical opinion each time when the Tudor King wanted to change his wife on either carnal or political grounds. In the context of Supreme Court verdict in this matter, it will not be an exaggeration to say that in more senses than one Milton Banerjee deserves the honorific title of Bishop Thomas Cranmer of the UPA Government. The next appropriate question is: 'Whom do we have in the place of Henry VIII in the UPA government in New Delhi?'. This moot question is no longer a matter of doubt or dispute among patriotic Indians who are passionately concerned about the very political and cultural survival of India as a nation!. I cannot help observing that the fatal disease afflicting the UPA Government in New Delhi is BAIDS – Banerjee Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. There are two kinds of this Syndrome – it is either Banerjee (UC) or Banerjee (Milton) Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome!

I am very happy to note that former CBI Director B R Lal will shortly be releasing a book titled Who owns CBI: The Naked Truth. He retired as Haryana police chief in 2004 and it was he who during his tenure as joint Director in the CBI had headed the probe into the much discussed Jain Hawala Case which had seen L K Advani resigning as leader of the Opposition in the 1990s. Senior Ministers in the Narasimha Rao Government, including Madhavrao Scindia and V C Shukla, also had to quit.

This explosive case was monitored by various Courts and became a very controversial issue that damaged the Narasimha Rao Government. B R Lal has claimed how then CBI Director K Vijaya Rama Rao deliberately put up road blocks when his probe reached the door steps of the high and mighty in government. B R Lal has made public official letters written by him to the CBI Director during 1995-96 to substantiate his claims. He has also given copies of the statement of S K Jain recorded during interrogation, highlighting how money was given to bigwigs whose names did not figure in the seized diaries of another accused, J K Jain.

Lal has given a very interesting account of how his probe was scuttled. Jain had linked the tendering process of various mega projects and kickbacks involved to the Hawala Scam worth over Rupees 1000 crores. Lal rightly says the detailed examination of these mega projects would have easily provided solid evidence of calculated criminal bungling; but this was abandoned on purely specious grounds that this aspect was not a part of the Jain diaries that were being investigated by the CBI. Criminal bungling laid the base and rationale for kickbacks and these illegal payments generated the largesse Jains distributed with unabated generosity among politicians from time to time. To quote the words of B R Lal: 'Thus, investigators were restrained from tracing the origin of the slush funds, the distribution of which CBI was investigating. It is never done in any investigation unless the investigation is to scuttle it!'

The Supreme Court in its recent verdict has confirmed all this in letter and spirit. In the light of this Supreme Court verdict, I can say with confidence that CBI today means Congress Bureau of Instigation, Congress Bureau of Insinuation and Congress Bureau of Intimidation.

Central Bureau of Investigation traces its origin to the Special Police Establishment (SPE) which was set up in 1941 by the Government of India. The functions of the SPE then were to investigate cases of bribery and corruption in transactions with the War & Supply Department of India during World War II. Superintendence of the SPE was vested with the War Department. Even after the end of the War, the need for a Central Government agency to investigate cases of bribery and corruption by Central Government employees was felt. The Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act was therefore brought into force in 1946.

The DSPE acquired its popular current name, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through a Home Ministry resolution dated 1st April,1963. Like the decadent Devadasi System in the old Madras Presidency, CBI today has become a haven for Devadasis. It owes its existence to an executive order. I would appeal to the President of India to persuade the UPA Government to appoint a three member National Commission headed by a retired Supreme Court Chief Justice to give an elevated Constitutional status to the CBI like the Election Commission of India with clearly defined powers and responsibilities and not as a Chamcha of the degenerate Congress Party.